Through Kei's Eyes
by Leiria
Summary: The Tormented as seen through Kei's eyes. The story starts off with the search for two missing girls and ends on a lighter note. Some spoilers if you haven't played the first three games. One shot. R&R! Yuu/Rei, imp Kei/Tomoe imp Kei/Rei imp Mafuyu/Kiri


**AN: This was a wild plot bunny that just wouldn't leave me alone. I don't know if its been done before, or if it's any good, but I always kinda wondered what the story would look like through Kei's eyes. This is a really long one-shot and I didn't really put much of the ghostly stuff in it because it's all in the game and if you're reading this I hope you've played them. At the very least the second and third ones because that's what this story revolves around. It starts off with your average ending for Crimson Butterfly and ends with the alt. ending for Tormented...sorta. Nothing is really solid in this fic and what's there is pretty much entirely implied, but...enjoy! Let me know what you think.**

* * *

**Through Kei's Eyes**

Kei Amakura slowly put the phone down on its cradle and sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "Fantastic," he angrily muttered to himself. Not only had his twin nieces gone missing, now his sister had gone missing too. Insult added to injury made this the second anniversary of his best friend's disappearance.

Knowing that there was really no other choice, nothing else that he could do, Kei walked up the stairs to his bedroom and pulled his suitcase out from under his bed. He would go up to the Minakami dam site and he would find out where Mio and Mayu went. Even if it meant that he went missing too.

Kei packed up his things and walked out to his car. After loading his suitcase into the trunk, he went back inside to write a letter to his friend Yuu, to let him know what was going on. Before he actually sat down to write it, however, he decided to pick up the phone and call instead.

The phone was answered quickly, but it was a surprising female voice on the other end. "Asou residence," she said. Kei thought that she seemed a little thrilled to say those words. It took him a few seconds to realize that this voice must belong to the woman Yuu had so highly spoken of. The woman he had said he was going to marry.

"I'm calling to speak with Yuu Asou" Kei replied. "Is he available?"

"Yes, one moment," the woman replied. He heard the phone be set down before he heard her voice in the distance call for Yuu. "He'll be right down," she said a moment later.

"Thank you," Kei replied. There was silence while he waited for Yuu. He could hear the two of them exchange a few short words before the phone exchanged hands.

"This is Yuu Asou"

"Yuu, this is Kei."

"Hello, Kei," Yuu said, sounding happy to hear from his closest friend. "Have your nieces been found yet?" he asked.

Kei sighed heavily. "No," he said. "And, in fact, my sister went missing in her search for them. It's been almost a week and no one can find them. It'll take me about two days to get up there, but I'm going to the Minakami dam site. I wanted to call and let you know what's going on. I may be gone for a while, or may even end up missing like the three of them, but I can't stay behind and do nothing…. When Misao went missing, Shuza went crazy…"

"I know," Yuu said softly. "You told me about it a long time ago…" Yuu sighed heavily. "Listen, just…be careful. They never found Mafuyu or Mr. Takamine and Miku never really recovered from that. I don't want to see you suffer that same fate. The last thing I want is to attend another memorial for a friend who won't be found."

"Miku said that Mafuyu stayed behind…" Kei said softly, looking at a photo next to his phone of the three of them. He, Yuu, and Mafuyu had been the best of friends before Takamine went missing during the research for his latest book. Mafuyu had gone looking for him and had been missing for two weeks before his younger sister, Miku, went looking for him. Miku had made it home, but no one was ever able to find the others. She wouldn't talk about what happened. Kei remembered how Mafuyu had always said that he was the only person Miku ever trusted.

"I know what she said," Yuu sighed. "I just…I don't understand it. You know, she's actually working for Rei now."

"Rei?" Kei asked. "You mean your fiancé?"

"Yes," Yuu replied. "She's Rei's assistant now. I introduced the two of them right after Mafuyu disappeared, when I brought Miku to live with us, and they hit it off. "

"Is Miku getting any better?" Kei asked.

"She seems to be," Yuu replied. "Anyway, I want you to promise me that you'll be careful while you're up at the dam site. You don't want to be up there too long. I read the other day that they're going to move forward with the dam's construction since they've given up on finding any of the missing people."

"Now that one more person has gone missing, they may halt it again. I don't plan on being up there long anyway. I just need to find them."

"I know," Yuu said. "Take care, Kei. Call me when you get back."

"I will," Kei promised before he hung up the phone. He sighed and rubbed at his eyes before he decided that it would be best to leave first thing in the morning. If he drove out now, then he'd be too tired to search for them when he arrived. It was best to sleep for a few hours first. He trudged back up the stairs to his bedroom and eased himself into bed, feeling that he was too young to feel this old but the stress of the past week had been wearing him down. First Mio and Mayu, now his sister…

No, he rectified, first Takamine and Tomoe, _then_ Mafuyu and Miku, _then_ Mio and Mayu, _and now_ his sister.

Kei reached for the photograph he had framed on his nightstand and looked at it sadly. The woman in the photo had been a few years older than he, but they had found an easy attraction to each other in the time that they had worked together with Takamine. She had told him that she had a bad feeling about going to Himuro mansion, but he had convinced her that it would be for the best. It would do wonders for her career. He wished that he had that chance, that opportunity…. Now she was missing, presumed dead, and Kei knew that he would never hear from her again. Her feelings, that sixth sense she had and hated, had never failed her. She told him that she didn't feel safe going and he discounted the feeling as simple nervousness. When Miku came back alone, Kei vowed that he would _never_ make that mistake again.

He put Tomoe's picture back on the nightstand, rolled onto his side with a heavy sigh, and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would take him over soon.

* * *

In the morning Kei drove up the mountain to the Minakami dam site. The drive took Kei a little under two days, and he was relieved to get up to the parking lot. He saw his sister's car sitting innocently, alone in the lot, and he wondered if he would be able to find the three of them.

As Kei got out of his car, stretching widely, he heard a scream. He slammed the door of his car shut and started running up the jogging path. "MAYU!" a girl cried. Kei froze, recognizing his niece's voice. He picked up the pace, careful to make sure that he didn't fall down the same ravine Mayu once fell down. The poor girl had to be in agony with her knee about now. Assuming she wasn't dead from dehydration or starvation.

Kei came to a stop just outside of a clearing with a large stone altar. The Shinto Gate he stood near looked about to collapse, but he wasn't paying much attention to it. His eyes were locked on his young niece, who had passed out under the gate.

Kei rushed to his niece. "Mio!" he called out. He knelt by her when he reached her and saw the dirt that caked her skin, the clean streaks from her recently cried tears, the stringiness of her hair, and frailness of her unconscious form. He turned her onto her back and pulled her into his arms, gently shaking her with the hopes of waking her up. "Mio," he softly said.

A rustling in the distance made Kei look up, hoping to see Mayu slowly following. The woman stumbled before she fell onto her hands and knees, sobbing. "Shuza!" Kei called out. "Shuza!"

He placed Mio back on the ground before he scrambled to his sister. Shuza looked up as Kei reached her and reached for her younger brother. "Oh, Kei, I can't find them!" she sobbed.

"I found Mio, she's just over here," Kei promised. "We have to get you both to a hospital straight away."

"No, I have to find them!" Shuza cried, pulling away from Kei. "I can't leave here without them!"

"We'll come back and look for Mayu after you and Mio have seen a doctor," Kei promised. "Come with me."

Shuza shook her head. "I have to find them, Kei," she said. "Mio and Mayu and Misao! I have to find them!"

The realization hit Kei square in his chest as he realized what had happened to his sister. "I think they might be this way," he said, pointing to the Shinto Gate. "Have you looked this way?" he asked.

Shuza looked at the gate. "I've never seen that gate before," she whispered.

"Then let's look over here for them," he said, hating himself for playing along with her delusions once again. He cursed himself for letting her come up here alone after the last time…. Misao's disappearance had truly driven Shuza crazy. She'd been able to overcome it in the past, which gave Kei the hope she could do it again.

He helped Shuza stand and together they walked over to the gate. Kei knelt in front of Mio and Shuza didn't seem to even see her daughter there. Kei managed to get Mio's arms around his neck from behind and stood with her. He carried her, piggyback style, down the mountain to his waiting car and put her in the back seat before he looked to Shuza.

Shuza's eyes were locked on the forest. "Shuza," Kei said. "Let's get in the car," he said. "There's another place we can look a little further down the mountain, but we have to drive to get there."

Shuza looked at her brother before she slowly nodded. "Of course," she said. She walked around to the passenger side and Kei unlocked the door before opening it for her. He walked around the car to the driver's side, got in and drove to the nearest hospital. Both of them would need a lot of care, a lot of professional help. He couldn't wait and look for Mayu and he knew that it was far too late to look for Misao.

Once at the hospital, Kei used the phone in the lobby to call Yuu. Yuu answered quickly and Kei had barely managed to spit out a greeting before he launched into the story of the events that had taken place up where the dam was to be built.

"You heard a scream and then you found Mio?" Yuu asked.

"Yes," Kei replied. "Or, I heard the scream and started running up the path. I found Mio at the edge of this odd clearing and Shuza came up the path a minute later. She thinks she's up there looking for Misao as well as the girls."

Yuu sighed. "She thinks he's still alive?" he asked. "After all this time?"

"Well, when you look at the facts, how can she not?" Kei asked. "Misao went missing looking for the girls the day of the accident and no one found him. The girls went missing in the same place at the same time of year and Shuza was never mentally stable enough to face that area again. That's why she moved away from it. The only reason any of them were here is because of that dam being built. The girls wanted to see the woods one more time before it all disappeared."

"True," Yuu sighed. "But they couldn't have been in the clearing the whole time. The searchers would have found them a long time ago if they had been."

Kei sighed. "There's an old abandoned village up there," he said. "If they were in the village, then it's no wonder that no one ever found the girls. I think I'm going to go back up the mountain to that village. I want to know if there's anything that I can find about what happened. The village is even old enough that might be able to find some good antiques for you."

"Focus on finding Mayu," Yuu said. "Don't worry about things like that for me. Just…" Yuu sighed heavily, "just be careful. Take someone with you if you can."

"There isn't anyone to take up there with me," Kei replied. "If I could I'd have you and Mafuyu by my side, but…"

"I know. Just keep me posted on what's going on. If you can't call, I expect a letter once in a while."

"I will," Kei promised. "I may actually need you to help me with Mio if it takes me longer to investigate the area than her to get better. Would it be alright if you came out to help me with her?"

"I'm sure it would be fine," Yuu promised. "I'll talk to Rei about it to make sure, but I don't think she'll have a problem with it."

"Thanks," Kei said, sighing with relief.

"Mr. Amakura?"

Kei looked up at the doctor who said his name. "Yuu, I have to go," he said. "The doctor's here."

"Ok," Yuu said. "Let me know what happens."

"I will," Kei promised before he hung up the phone and turned to the doctor. "Yes?" he asked.

"Mr. Amakura, I'm Dr. Tachibana, your niece's attending physician. We need to keep her for a few days for observation. She's severely sleep deprived, malnourished, and dehydrated. Looking at her, I don't think she's eaten or slept in a week."

Kei sighed. "She and Mayu have been missing for a week," Kei said. "Mayu is her twin sister, but when I found her…she was alone. I don't know what happened up there, Dr. Tachibana, but she…" he sighed.

The doctor gave Kei an odd look. "Up where?" he asked.

"The Minakami dam site," Kei replied. "The girls used to go there a long time ago. Mayu actually fell down a ravine once when they were playing up there and the doctor who checked her out when we got her down from the mountain said that she'd torn the meniscus badly enough that even surgery wasn't likely to make it much better. They operated on it, but Mayu never was the same afterward. Mio still feels guilty every time Mayu's leg starts acting up."

"The Minakami dam site?" the doctor asked. "Did they find the abandoned village that's up there?" he asked.

Kei sighed. "I would assume so," he said. "I found Mio and Shuza in this large clearing with a stone altar in the middle of it."

The doctor nodded. "You can see Mio if you'd like at any time," he said. "Like I said, I want to keep her for a little while to make sure she recovers from the ordeal. Shuza's doctor should be out shortly to speak with you."

Kei nodded and made his way to the room they had put Mio in. He sat down in a chair next to her bed and watched as she uneasily slept, aided by medication. He heard her mumbling Mayu's name as she apologized over and over for something. "Mayu…ritual…so sorry…" she mumbled. Kei froze and stared at his niece in horror. The realization set in his stomach like ice weighing him down and chilling him to the bone.

The doctor seemed to have known something about the village. Kei stood and left the room, going to the nearby nurse's station. "Excuse me," he said, "do you know where I might find Dr. Tachibana?" he asked.

The woman behind the desk looked up and shook her head. "No, I'm sorry," she said. "Is there a problem that I can assist you with?"

Kei shook his head. "No, it's nothing important," he said. "I just had some questions for him about the village up by where they're building the dam."

The nurse seemed to pale a little. "Why do you want to know about All God's Village?" she asked.

"All God's Village?" Kei asked. "Is that the name of that place?"

The nurse gasped, covering her mouth, eyes a little wide with the horror of what she'd just told the outsider. "I'm sorry, I've said too much," she said, bowing her head.

"But you haven't said anything at all!" Kei protested.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me," she said, bowing once again.

Kei sighed in frustration before he tried a different route. "Can you tell me where the nearest public library is?" he asked.

"Of course, Sir," the nurse said. "But that won't help you find the information you're looking for," she said.

"Then where _can_ I find the information I'm looking for?" Kei asked.

The nurse sighed before she reached for a pad and a pencil. She scribbled down a phone number before she tore off the top sheet and handed it to Kei. "Call that man," she said. "He may be able to tell you."

"Thank you," Kei said, surprised that the nurse would be so forthcoming with information she was clearly not willing to share herself. He took the phone number and walked back to Mio's room. Before he turned the corner, he looked back to see the nurse on the phone with her hand cupped over her mouth and the receiver, as if to prevent anyone from overhearing. Kei wondered what that was about, and if it was something he would need to worry about, then continued on his way.

When he reentered Mio's room, there was another doctor looking in through the doorway. As the doctor turned toward the lobby, where Kei had just come from, his eyes widened. "Are you Mr. Amakura?" he asked.

Kei nodded. "I am," he said.

"I'm Dr. Makabe," the man said, holding his hand out. "I'm the doctor attending your sister. I'd like to speak with you for a few minutes, please?"

Kei nodded. "Of course," he said. "In here or somewhere else?"

"In here is fine," Dr. Makabe said. The two of them walked into Mio's room where the silence was broken by the steady beeping of the machinery keeping track of the young girl's vitals. Dr. Makabe shut the door behind him and sighed as he faced Kei. "I noticed that your sister was treated at our hospital before for a psychotic breakdown, is that correct?" he asked.

Kei nodded with a heavy sigh. "Yes," he said. "Her husband went missing about eleven years ago and she went looking for him. He was never found but because of what had happened to the girls and Misao, she snapped. She takes medication regularly for it, but I can't imagine that the girls' disappearance did any good for her psyche."

"I think it may have actually made matters quite a bit worse," Dr. Makabe said sadly. "You see, your sister is beyond help now. We can't even get her to understand that she's not in the village anymore or that she won't find her husband. I'm afraid to say it, but it looks like she'll need to be committed."

Kei sighed heavily before he looked at Mio. "Do it," he whispered, hating himself for saying the words.

* * *

Two days later, Mio was released from the hospital. As Kei drove the two of them back to his small house, he knew what he would have to do. "Mio, I'm going to call a friend over to stay with you for a couple of days, will that be alright?" he asked. He glanced at his niece to see her slowly blink as she stared blankly through the passenger window. "Please answer me," Kei urged.

"Fine," Mio whispered.

Kei sighed and focused on driving once more. He would call Yuu out and then go back up to the dam site and poke around that village to get some answers, seeing as the number the woman had given him had turned out to be a disconnected phone line. He would do as much as he could before they came in to begin construction.

When Kei called Yuu out, he hadn't expected his friend to be so accommodating. "Rei and Miku are out on an assignment," Yuu promised. "She won't mind. Besides, this will give me a chance to go over that manuscript from Takamine that you're coveting."

Kei laughed despite the reality of the situation and told Yuu that, so long as the manuscript didn't leave the house, he was more than welcome to read every last word. However, there was a threat of death should even one droplet of liquid or sauce or any other paper-ruining substance touch one page.

Yuu arrived that night and Mio quickly excused herself to go to bed. While the two men watched her retreat, Kei wondered if she would ever talk about what had happened in the village. Knowing that he wasn't able to do anything for her until he knew what happened, with or without Mio being the one to tell him, Kei turned back to his best friend and his beer. "I'm not going to find Mayu, you know that right?" he asked, meeting his best friend's eyes. "Even if I do somehow miraculously find her, she's probably dead by now."

Yuu sighed heavily. "I know," he said. He took a long drink from the long-neck bottle before he slowly turned it in his hands, peeling off the label. He cleared his throat and took another drink before he looked up at Kei. "You said she mumbled the word 'ritual' in her sleep, right?" he asked.

Kei nodded. "Yeah," he said.

"I did some digging for you," Yuu said. "I didn't want to mention it over the phone because I wanted to talk to you about what I found in person, but it doesn't look good for Mayu."

"What did you find?" Kei asked.

"The village you said you found Mio and Shuza at, you said that there was a Shinto Gate there right?" he asked. Kei nodded. "Did you notice any deity statues around?"

"I wasn't exactly paying attention to the scenery," Kei said. "The insane sister and unconscious niece were taking up my focus."

Yuu nodded. "When you head back up there, be on the lookout for a twin deity statue with the head of one of the twins either chipped away or carved without one."

"I'm guessing this has something to do with what you found that doesn't bode well for Mayu," Kei said slowly, feeling the tension settle in his shoulders and back. "Right?" he asked.

Yuu nodded. "If it's the village I think it is, All God's Village, then there's a one of those Gates of Hell ceremonies that took place there."

"Did you just say All God's Village?" Kei asked.

Yuu blinked at him. "Yes," he said. "Why?"

Kei sighed. "Tell me what you found out," he said. "It's that village."

"You're sure?" Yuu asked. "How do you know?"

Kei sighed. "The nurse at the hospital," Kei replied. "She mentioned the name of the village before she gave me a phone number to speak with a man that doesn't even work, which makes me wonder if that was why she was fine with giving it to me given how closed-mouthed she became when she let the name of the village slip."

Yuu nodded. "Most likely," he said. "Anyway, this village doesn't have a lot of information. One day it was there, the next there was a festival and the village just disappeared. No one could find it again. They say that it vanished because of a ritual that went wrong. Like I said, they had a Gate of Hell ritual there that they completed religiously to keep the spirits appeased. Well, from what I could find, the ritual went wrong and hell was unleashed on All God's Village, locking it in perpetual night. There are rumors saying that if you pass through the Shinto Gate with the Twin Deity Statue, you won't find your way back. That could be what happened to your sister's husband all those years ago."

"So what about this makes things look bad for Mayu?" Kei asked. "I found Mio at the gate and Shuza inside of the clearing, which was on the other side of it. Clearly whatever happened before I got there resolved…" Kei's voice trailed off as the pieces began to fall into place. "Tell me about the ritual," he said with a rough voice before he took another drink from his beer.

Yuu sighed. "The ritual is pretty much unknown," he said. "There's a mention of a place or thing that you can't reference in anyway. In the text that I found, it was constantly referred to as an asterisk. They wouldn't even write the name of it."

"Sounds bad…"

Yuu nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "Anyway, this unspeakable place is where the ritual to cleanse the land happens. They say that in off years, a sacrifice is made of an outsider who stumbles into the village and the more they suffer the more the blank is appeased. On the years when the actual ritual takes place, either twin shrine maidens or twin altar boys are taken down to it and they become one, in some sort of way. It says that younger one becomes a Butterfly and the other becomes the Remaining and is treated like some sort of god."

"So you're saying that, in order to lift the curse and get out of the village, Mio had to kill Mayu," Kei said softly.

Yuu nodded. "I think so," he agreed.

Kei sighed heavily and looked down the hall toward Mio's room. "Great," he muttered. "I'm still going up there," he said. "I have to know for sure."

Yuu nodded. "I expected nothing less," he said. "I almost wish I could have brought Miku with me to have her stay with Mio so that I could go up there with you. I never get to go explore…" Kei could hear a note of resentment in his best friend's voice and sighed.

"You know, you'd think that you would be just fine with that," he said. "Considering Mafuyu stayed behind to love a vengeful ghost to keep hell from being unleashed into the world and Mayu was sacrificed for the same thing. It's enough to make me wish I could convince myself to not go, but there's no way that's going to happen.

Yuu nodded. "So when do you leave tomorrow?" he asked. "In the morning?"

Kei nodded. "I'm really not all that much of a fan of making the drive back again so soon, but the more time it takes for me to get up there and poke around, the less time I'm going to have to just that. They're getting ready to start on the dam since Mio and Shuza were found. I don't really want to risk them flooding Mayu if I have a chance to stop that."

Yuu nodded. "You should get to sleep then," he said. "You don't want to be driving tired."

Kei nodded before he polished off the remains of his beer. Yuu did the same and Kei stood to put them both in the trash can. "The other guest room is ready for you," he said. "You remember where it is?" he asked.

"That depends," Yuu said, "is it my old room or Mafuyu's?"

Kei smiled. "Yours," he said before he started down the hall. He expected Yuu to stay up a bit later, as the man was more of the night owl type than morning person. Kei shut himself in his room and walked across it before he turned on the lamp on his nightstand. With a heavy sigh, he sat down on the edge of his bed and closed his eyes, holding his head in his hands.

After a moment, Kei looked at the photograph on his nightstand. Two years was a long time to mourn the loss of someone. Too long, Kei realized with a heavy sigh. He traced his fingers along the edge of Tomoe's face before he sighed and put the picture in the drawer of his nightstand. He couldn't think of her and focus on what happened to his family. Thinking of what would never happen wouldn't help him with the things that _had_ happened. Thinking of a person who didn't love you as much as you loved them, a person who cared more about someone else than she did you, it was a waist of time, Kei knew. It was time to put the past away.

Oddly, Kei felt relieved once he shut the drawer. He let out a sigh, feeling as though a huge weight had just been taken from his shoulders. Given the responsibilities he'd just acquired, being Mio's only fit and living relative, he didn't think he should have felt so light. He laid down on his bed after kicking off his house slippers and smiled to himself, unable to pinpoint where the feeling was coming from. For the first time in two years, Kei slept the full night, without waking up feeling almost as tired as he had when he went to sleep. He couldn't explain it, so he didn't try. Instead, he quietly crept through the house as to not disturb either Mio or Yuu on his way to the kitchen for breakfast.

Knowing Yuu was back in his old bedroom, Kei couldn't help but think of the times the three of them had spent while they were all still in college. Each of them bringing girlfriends in late at night and failing to sneak them out in the morning, not to mention the late night cram sessions and venting sessions about professors or even talk of the girls around the campus that they all wanted to bring home. Kei remembered that the one time he actually met Rei was one of those mornings when Yuu failed to successfully sneak her out. Of course, in Yuu's defense, Kei had gotten up early that day.

The sound of a door opening meant that either Yuu or Mio was now up and moving about. Kei thought it was weird for either of them to be moving around at such an early hour of the morning, but it wasn't long until Yuu came down into the kitchen. "Do you have that coffee ready yet?" he asked.

Kei chuckled and indicated the cup in his hand. "Of course I do," he said. Yuu gave a tired smile before he started getting his own cup ready.

Yuu sighed, breathing in the smell of the liquid in the cup in his hands. "I forgot how much I hated that bed," he said.

"With the lumps in all the wrong places?" Kei asked.

Yuu nodded. "I thought you were getting that replaced?" he asked.

"I haven't had the time," Kei replied. "I've been really busy with the manuscript since the publishing company finally let me have it. They want me to finish Takamine's work."

"They want you to finish it?" Yuu asked. "That's incredible."

Kei nodded. "And now you know why the manuscript is coveted," he said.

Yuu nodded. "I hate to do this, but I have a really serious thing I have to say to you," he said. Kei gave his friend an odd look. "I feel like I'm not going to be around much longer," he confessed. Kei's eyes widened. "I keep having these dreams where I die in some sort of crash and it's raining…." Yuu sighed, rubbing his eyes. "I don't know if it's a warning that I really am going to die or if it's just some stupid dream I keep having, but I have to ask you this regardless."

"Ask me what?" Kei softly asked.

"I want you to take care of Rei if anything happens to me," Yuu said, meeting Kei's eyes again.

Kei sighed heavily. "On one condition," he said. Yuu's eyebrows went up questioningly. "If something happens to me on that mountain you take care of Mio," he said.

Yuu nodded. "Of course," he said.

Kei nodded. "Okay," he said. He drained the last of his coffee and rinsed the cup out. "I'm heading out now," he said, putting his hand on Yuu's shoulder. "We'll all be alright," he whispered in promise.

Yuu sighed. "I hope so," he whispered.

* * *

Kei spent three days searching the village. The only things he found were a large black bag carrying a lot of papers, books, photos, and stones; and an old camera with odd etchings around the lens. There was no sign that Mayu had ever been there, except for the charm she always wore, so Kei packed everything up and he headed home. By the time he got there, Mio was a shell sitting in front of the window looking out over the garden. Kei left the camera and bag out in the car because he didn't want Mio to see it yet. Yuu offered to stay another day, so that Kei could concentrate on what he found, but Kei insisted that Yuu get home to his fiancé and life. The young anthropologist sighed, but reluctantly agreed. He headed out that afternoon and Kei remembered Yuu's fears of the future. He hoped they really would all be okay.

That night, after Mio went to her room to go to bed, Kei went out to his car and picked up what he had found. When he brought it inside, he saw Mio standing in the front room looking for something.

"Mio, what are you looking for?" Kei asked.

Mio looked at Kei and saw the things he hand in his hands. "No!" she cried. "No, no, nonono!" she cried before she ran back to her room. Kei set the things down on the nearby chair and went running after his niece. "Mio!" he called.

He found Mio curled up on her bed, in the corner, clutching her knees to her chest and rocking back and forth. "Mio?" he gently asked.

Mio's eyes seemed to be locked on something Kei couldn't see.

"I didn't want to do it," Mio whispered. "I didn't have a choice. I would have followed her down there. I tried to follow her down there. I didn't want to survive. We were both supposed to make it out of the village…."

"Mio?" Kei nearly whispered, easing himself onto her bed and reaching out to touch her hand. Mio jumped the moment Kei's hand came into contact with hers and she screamed. "Mio!" Kei nearly yelled.

Mio met Kei's eyes for a brief second. "I don't want to see anymore," she whispered before she laid down, hugging her pillow tightly to her. She closed her eyes and Kei watched as she silently cried, having no idea how to help her. He finally stood and left the room, silently closing the door behind him. He sighed and rest his forehead against the door before he started back for the living room, determined to find some answers.

He found the notes that the surveyor made and a gold ring that had blood on it, he found quite a few semi-precious stones, and some notebooks. There was a red notebook that seemed to be written by the woman who went missing while looking for the surveyor, a diary from a girl who was afraid of everything, one who had a doll to replace a twin and her father who insisted that the doll was possessed, notes from a folklorist and his assistant, a set of twins named Yae and Sae…and five tomes that described an unspeakable ritual.

Kei looked around him at everything that had been laid out on the table. Newspaper scraps and photos were all organized, the folklorist's notes were ordered, the diaries were all together and the notes by the woman and surveyor were stacked together. Kei reached for the camera and looked at it closely. There was film inside of it, but the shutter button didn't work. He had the vague feeling that he'd seen the camera before, but he couldn't picture where it would have come from. The notes, Kei knew, he could use for a book, following in Takamine's footsteps. The camera would be more Yuu's department, since he collected antiques. Kei sighed, knowing that he would need to get this stuff either boxed up or out of the house in some way before Mio saw it all again. He went to the closet under the staircase and grabbed a folded up box that had been left behind after Yuu and Mafuyu had moved out. He boxed up the notes and photos and books into the box and carried it upstairs to his room. He would need access to it when he started on the book. He brought the camera upstairs as well, to prevent Mio from seeing it and freaking out again. In the morning, he would go to the post office to send it to Yuu.

The days melted away faster than Kei could keep up with them. He worked hard with Takamine's manuscript, hoping to get it finished by the deadline they had set for him. He began to notice that Mio would sleep later and later and go to bed earlier and earlier. She would wake up crying out in pain and have nightmares that left her thrashing around in her bed. Finally, Kei had to abandon the work Takamine started because Mio's health was more important to him. He took her to the hospital and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. They decided to keep her for observation and Kei agreed, knowing that they could take better care of her than he could.

Kei began doing research into the effects of those left behind after some sort of tragedy. He found a condition from the west that was called PTSD and felt that it sort of applied to Mio, but there had to be more to it than that. PTSD didn't really describe the phantom pain that Mio complained about or the tattoo she said was spreading along her arm.

It was while researching that that Kei came across the Kuze Shrine. He read about the shrine and how people used to offer up their pain to a priestess who would carry them through to " the other side." Kei wrote everything into a letter and sent it off to Yuu, letting him know that he would be up the mountain searching in the area of the shrine to see what he could find. He wouldn't be in contact for a while, but he wanted to make sure Yuu knew what was going on.

It took Kei a week to find the shrine. It was a dilapidated building that had certainly seen better days. As he investigated the area, he found all of the answers to Mio's ailments. He sent letter after letter to Yuu describing the growing situation and his desperation to find a cure. Then, one night in his hotel, he had the first dream. He was back in All God's Village and Mio was chasing after the Crimson Butterflies. Kei chased after her and followed her into building after building. He lost track of her and kept searching until he came to be in the Kuze house, except that the house was in better shape than the one he had actually been in. He froze when he saw the woman covered in blue tattoos. She slowly walked toward him, the light fading wherever she walked. Kei's heart raced as he slowly backed up, trying to get away from her. She disappeared for a split second and reappeared right in front of him. Kei cried out and raised his arm to protect himself as she reached out to grab him. She grabbed his arm in a surprisingly strong grip and Kei felt like ice needles had just gone through his arm. He woke, drenched in a cold sweat, and stared at his arm. Then, an intense pain took over him and he cried out, clutching at his arm. The pain diffused and he stared at his arm for a few seconds more, then he watched the tattoo form.

"Oh no," Kei whispered, realizing that he was no just as cursed as Mio.

Kei hung his head, thinking of the promise he'd made to Yuu. He knew he was going to end up not being able to do it. Not unless he could break this curse. He sighed and stood up to go to the writing desk in his hotel room. He wrote Yuu a letter, letting the other man know that he was cursed. He looked at the tapes he had and put them in the envelope too, hoping that maybe Yuu could figure some sense out of all of this craziness. Kei promised he'd come down off of the mountain soon, and that he'd call the second he did. He looked out through the window, saw the rain steadily pouring down, and wondered what had happened to that priestess to make her so hateful.

With a sigh, Kei walked down to the lobby and handed them the letter to be sent out. He went back upstairs, readied himself for the day, then went out to his car to drive to the dilapidated mansion. Rain or no rain, he had to find a way to end this.

The book was under the corner of a shelving unit that had fallen over. It talked about all sorts of things, including the ritual itself and why it was performed. It also talked about what to do in the event of the ritual's failure. As Kei read it, right there in the ruins, his heart began to race. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something. He looked up and saw a shadow moving down the hall. "Hello?" he called out. He followed the shadow around the corner and gasped. "Yuu?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

Yuu turned and looked at Kei before he rounded the next corner. Kei followed his friend and found an empty room. Yuu was nowhere to be seen. Kei felt his stomach plummet through the floor and knew something had happened. He looked around the room and saw a burlap sack spilled on the floor. He walked over to it and picked up the sack. Inside were stakes. Kei's breath quickened as he looked back at the book. Inside, it said that if the priestess should wake, she should be staked back down. If he could make it into the chamber where her body rest, he could stake her back down and end this curse.

Kei grabbed the bag and shoved the book inside before he raced back out to his car. He didn't stop or look back until he got down to the bottom of the mountain. He stopped at the nearest payphone and called Yuu's house. He had to tell Yuu what had just happened.

The phone kept ringing but it was finally answered. "Rei Kurasawa speaking," a woman said.

Kei stuttered for a moment. "This is Kei Amakura," Kei replied. "I'm calling for Mr. Asou. Is he available?"

"Yuu…" she whispered. "Yuu…he…" Kei could hear the tears in her voice. Rei cleared her throat. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but Yuu died two months ago in a car accident."

Two months? Kei's hand gripped the phone tightly as he felt his world begin to crumble around him. Had it really been two months already? Between the research and the work Kei had done on Mr. Takamine's book and taking care of Mio, of course it had been two months. More than two months.

"Hello?" Rei asked.

Kei cleared his throat. "I'm here," he said. "Forgive me. Um…I'm tied up at the moment, but would it be alright if I stop by to pay my respects?" he asked. "I…I have to say goodbye to him…"

"Of course," Rei said softly.

"Thanks," Kei whispered. "I just have some research here that I have to finish up…"

"Um, about your research…can you keep doing it?"

Kei stared at the phone in shock. "Why?" he asked, wondering if she had been reading his letters to her dead fiancé. Did she know about the Manner of Sleep?

"Well…you see…" Rei sighed heavily, "I've been having the dreams too," she whispered.

"Oh," Kei whispered. Survivor's guilt…was she trapped by these dreams because of Yuu's death? "I have some things with me now," he said. "I just have to finish some of the reading and put a plan together. I'll be down as soon as I can."

"Thank you," Rei said softly.

"Of course," Kei said softly. He sighed heavily before he hesitated, almost wanting to keep her on the phone.

"Take care," Rei said before he heard the click of the line going dead. Kei sighed one more time. "Yuu told me to take care of you," he whispered to the dial tone. "I'll be there soon…" he finished before he hung up. He walked back to his car and sat down before he folded his arms over the steering wheel and buried his face in them. He didn't know how long he sat there crying. The world was darker but the rain was heavier when he finally turned his car on to go back to the hotel.

Kei stayed up most of the night, forcing himself to read. He kept hearing Yuu in his head asking him to take care of Rei in the event that something happened to him. He knew that the only way to do that was to solve the mystery of this curse. If they could stop this curse from taking them, Kei would feel that he had fulfilled Yuu's last wishes.

The more he read, the surer Kei became that he would need to find the priestess in his dream and stake her down. It seemed to be the only way. He knew that she was alert, that's why the rift had formed.

With that thought in mind, Kei reluctantly went to bed. He decided that he'd drive out to pay his respects in the morning. He was closer to Rei than he was to his house anyway.

* * *

When Kei finally arrived, Miku had succumbed to the dream and the curse. Rei led him up the stairs to her bedroom and Kei watched as his best friend's little sister was tormented by things that Kei hadn't been fast enough to stop. Rei rest her head on his shoulder, needing to be comforted in some way by someone who knew. Kei sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, silently promising her that he would make everything okay.

When they went down stairs, Rei showed Kei to Yuu's altar and Kei lit incense in honor of his best friend's memory. "What happened?" he asked.

Rei sighed. "I was driving," she whispered. "We were on our way home from my parents' house and we started arguing about something my father said. He never really liked Yuu, especially after we moved in together." Kei heard Rei sniffle and he turned to see her brush away a tear. "I was driving too fast because I was getting angry," she said through her tears. "The car hydroplaned and we went spinning. Yuu…he took off his seatbelt to shield me as the car flipped and dropped down to the road below us…."

Rei buried her face in her hands as a sob shook her entire body. Kei walked up to her and hugged her tightly, knowing that she blamed herself for something that wasn't her fault. She clutched him, sobbing into his shoulder. Was this how Yuu wanted him to look out for her? To be there when she needed a shoulder to cry on or to help cure this curse? Was there a way for him to overstep the boundary that he didn't know was real or not?

Kei looked up at the ceiling, as if he could see Yuu through all that was real. _Let me know what you want me to do,_ he silently asked. _Let me know how I'm supposed to help her…_

Rei's tears subsided and the two of them walked back to the living room. Rei excused herself to make tea and Kei sat down with the book and the stakes. He wondered if the stakes would be in the same general area in the dream as they had been in real life. As Rei walked in and sat down on the couch, she handed Kei a cup of tea. Kei pushed the book toward her. "I found this in the manner," he said before he explained what was in the book. Rei flipped through the pages as he talked and even came across the third verse of the lullaby.

She finally looked up at Kei. "Do you honestly think this is going to work?" she asked.

Kei sighed. "It has to," he said softly. "How else will we survive? We can't fight much longer than this, Rei," he said, looking at her almost helplessly. "Mio and Miku won't wake up. It's only a matter of time before you and I are lost."

Rei sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "Okay," she whispered. She finished her tea and stood up. She took Kei's empty cup and put them both on the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room. "I guess it's time for bed then," she said.

"Yeah," Kei whispered, feeling a little less than enthusiastic to be putting himself in that position once again. He settled himself on the couch as Rei walked upstairs and turned the light off. He watched her move and could easily see what Yuu had seen in her. He heard her bedroom door shut above him and he settled himself down on the couch. Maybe if they survived…

Kei found the stakes easily enough in his dream. So long as he kept a Purifying Light candle on him at all times in the dream, and luckily enough he kept finding them just as the candle was about to go out, he didn't have too many problems with the ghosts. He made it all of the way into the Chamber of Thorns before he felt remotely like he was going to wake up. As he moved to drive the stakes through Reika's hands and feet, he saw that she was already staked down. "What?" he whispered.

Then came the sound of a hammer hitting the stakes. Each time the hammer sounded, the stakes were driven up. One by one the clanged as they fell to the ground. Kei watched in horror as Reika stood up. He tried to scramble to his feet and run to the door, but it shut before he could reach it. He screamed in horror as everything went black and her hands grabbed his arms. He felt himself be thrown down onto the body of someone else in the chamber and then he felt cold metal press against his palm. "No," he begged. He screamed when it was driven through his hand, pinning him to whatever was beneath him. Each time the stake moved in a little more, Kei screamed. By the time the fourth stake was driven into him, pinning him tightly down, Kei was ready to completely give up. Then he felt someone cut into his skin. The torment continued for so long that Kei lost track of time.

Finally, somehow, everything stopped. Kei opened his eyes to see Yuu standing over him. He reached out and held his hand out to Kei to take.

"Is it over?" Kei whispered.

Yuu smiled at his best friend and Mafuyu appeared by his side. Together the two of them pulled Kei to his feet. "It's over," Yuu promised before he smiled again. "You did well."

"Not as good as I did," Mafuyu said with a chuckle.

"Did you really stay behind for a dead girl?" Kei asked.

"Priestess," Mafuyu said. "A dead priestess. And yes, I did. Kirie's a nice girl. I think she's actually my soul mate."

"Wow," Kei whispered.

"Speaking of soul mates," Yuu said, looking at Kei, "take care of Rei. She deserves it after saving you."

"She's your soul mate?" Kei asked.

Yuu shook his head. "Not mine," he said with a small smile. "Anyway, I think it's long past time that you woke up."

Mafuyu nodded. "Four days is a long time to be asleep," he said. "Rei should be waking up, and Miku, and even Mio. They're all going to need you. And you have a whole new book to write."

"And a good photographer who will be more than happy to provide you with a lot of pictures for you to write all about the Manor of Sleep with."

Kei sighed and gave his two best friends a sad smile. "I hate to say this, but I hope I don't see you two again soon…"

"Oh, we'll see you next week," Mafuyu said. Kei stared at him in shock before Mafuyu laughed. "You don't have to worry about dying any time soon," he promised.

"No, you've got to carry on the Amakura name after all," Yuu added.

"I'm going to miss you guys," Kei sighed.

His two best friends nodded. "We know," Yuu said. "Just remember us. We'll live on that way."

Kei opened his eyes and looked around the room. Morning sunlight slowly streamed in through the picture windows in Rei's living room, filtered by the light curtains hanging there. He looked at his arm, almost waiting for the pain and tattoo to spread. Nothing happened.

Kei looked up at the second floor hall and saw Rei looking down at him with a small smile on her face. She walked over to Miku's room and opened the door. Kei stood and stretched before he walked into the kitchen to make tea. He stopped when he saw the coffee maker. He smiled to himself and wondered if the girls drank coffee or if the machine was on the counter because of Yuu.

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs and moved over to the window area to see them walk down in pajamas. Kei suddenly felt very much over-dressed. "Coffee or tea?" he asked.

Rei smiled. "I'm a coffee, Miku's a tea," she said.

Kei nodded and looked at Miku. "Long time no see," he said softly.

Miku smiled. "Two years," she sighed, sitting on the stool at the bar.

Kei nodded and busied himself with filling the coffee pot and tea kettle for the morning. Miku turned to Rei. "How did you do it?" she asked.

Rei stared at Miku for a moment. "I closed her eyes and sent her across the rift," she said softly. "After trapping her in the camera."

"You fought her?" Kei asked, turning to the window to see Rei sitting on the back of the couch. "You actually _fought_ her?"

Rei slowly nodded. "Yeah," she whispered. "I fought her…defeated her…put her to rest…." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "And now I feel like I can sleep for about ten years."

"None of us have really rested in the past month or so," Miku said softly, "despite how much we've slept."

Kei nodded. "I know I haven't really rested since Mio and Mayu went missing," he sighed. The tea kettle whistled and Kei turned around to take it off of the heat. He poured two cups of coffee and looked at Miku. "Where is the tea?" he asked.

"Fridge," Miku replied. "The ginseng please."

Kei nodded and retrieved the requested tea from the fridge. As he put the bag in the cup, he realized he should call the hospital to find out what, if anything, had happened to Mio. He passed Miku her tea and put one of the mugs of coffee on the counter for Rei. She retrieved it and sat down on the other stool. "May I use your phone in a few minutes?" Kei asked.

Rei nodded. "Of course," she said.

Kei smiled at her. "Thank you," he said.

"Who are you calling?" Miku asked.

"The hospital Mio is in," Kei replied. "I need to know if she died or if she woke up. She started having the dreams after she saw the Camera Obscura."

"You actually have the camera?" Miku asked.

"He sent it to Yuu almost three months ago," Rei said. "You don't remember that?"

"I didn't know it was the actual camera," Miku whispered. "But it broke…in Humuro Mansion…"

"When you were fighting Kirie?" Kei asked.

Miku stared at her brother's friend in shock. "How do you know that name?" she whispered.

"Mafuyu told me in a dream," Kei softly replied. "I saw both of them before I woke up," he said, nodding toward the couch he had slept on.

"You saw Yuu too?" Rei asked, meeting Kei's eyes. Kei nodded. "What did he say to you?" she asked.

Kei sighed. "They both said to watch out for you two," he said. "Yuu was pretty much reinforcing the promise he made me make before he died."

"When did this happen?" Rei asked.

"Almost three months ago when he stayed at my place with Mio for a week," Kei replied. "He said that he kept having dreams of dying in a crash in the rain…."

Kei watched as the tears suddenly fell from Rei's eyes. "He knew…?" she whispered questioningly, looking at Kei for answers.

Kei sighed but nodded. "He did," he said softly. "He asked me to take care of you and Mafuyu asked us both to look out for you," he said, looking at Miku. "Which means now that I'm the only one left, I get all three of you."

"Three?" Rei asked.

"Mio," Kei said softly. "My sister is in an institution right now because her mind snapped after the girls went missing. She's not coming back out."

"So what did they mean by take care of us?" Rei asked. "Are you going to move us into your place like Yuu did when it came time to take care of Miku or are you going to do it from a distance and let us keep living the way we have been?"

Kei sighed. "I don't know," he said. "What do you want to happen?"

"In Yuu's defense, he didn't just move me in here all of the sudden," Miku said. Rei looked at her. "He asked me what I wanted. He told me what Mafuyu had asked right before he went to look for Mr. Takamine and the others. I didn't have anyone to help me since my mother killed herself when I was fifteen and my father's been dead since I was eight. It wasn't sudden for us, even if it may have looked that way to you."

Rei sighed. "All I know is that Yuu and I moved in here and two weeks later, he was rushing off and he came home with you," Rei said softly. "While I'm glad that he brought you here because you're a good friend and a great assistant, it was pretty sudden when it happened. It seems like that's what is expected to have happen now, and I don't want to leave this house."

"You have to let Yuu go, Rei," Miku said. "Holding onto him like this is only going to drive you crazy in the end."

"This isn't about Yuu!" Rei cried in her own defense. "This is about this being _my_ house. Yuu and I bought this house and, aside from my parents' house and my dormitory in college, this is the only place I've lived. I don't want to leave here. I'm established here."

"You haven't done an assignment since we went up to the Kuze house and before that you hadn't touched an assignment since Yuu died. How can you still be established here if you aren't doing anything? You keep turning down assignments!"

"I KNOW THAT!" Rei shouted suddenly. She slammed her fist onto the counter before she went upstairs. Kei looked at Miku, who sighed, before he put his coffee down on the counter and followed Rei up the stairs. He saw her walk down the hall and followed her, knocking on the slightly open door as he pushed it wider. "Rei?" he asked.

There was no answer so he stepped inside the room. He saw Rei curled up on the bed in the room, clutching a pillow to her. Kei walked over to her and knelt on the floor near her head. He reached out and his hand hovered over her shoulder before he rest it there. "What did Yuu say to you before you woke up?" he asked.

"He told me to go on living and remember him," she whispered, rubbing the tears away. She buried her face in the pillow and her body shook with a sob. Kei sighed and brushed her hair away from her face, marveling at the softness even at a time like this. "I almost wish I could just forget him," she said. "Two years we were engaged and we never got married…"

"Why didn't you?" Kei asked. "What stopped you?"

"Yuu never wanted to agree on a day," Rei whispered. "No day was ever good enough for him. Three hundred and sixty-five to choose from and he couldn't think of _one_. He would say that he didn't want to put anything into motion because that would mean that I would officially meet you and get to know you because you were going to be his best man and he was always afraid that I'd like you more…"

Kei sighed. "I know," he said softly. "Yuu said the same thing to me more than once. I used to ask him why he wouldn't let me come out here to see him, why he always had to come to me, and he would say that it was because he didn't want me to get to know you because he said that he knew I'd steal you away from him."

Rei let out a long sigh. "I want to hate him so much for some of the things I went through with him," she said softly. "I want to burn every last memory of him, but I can't. No matter how much I want to hate him, I still love him…so much…."

Kei nodded. "I know," he said. "I really do. I've been through this too."

"You have?" Rei asked.

Kei nodded and let out a heavy sigh before he moved Rei's cooling coffee to the side and rest against the nightstand next to the bed. "My girlfriend, Tomoe, was with Mr. Takamine when they went missing," Kei said. "She was his assistant, but even I knew that there was more going on between them than just a working relationship." Kei sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I encouraged her to go," he said softly. "I told her that it would do wonders for her career. She kept saying that she had a bad feeling about it and that she didn't think she should. In the end she went. Miku told me that, while she was there, she saw how Tomoe died and she found a scrap of paper from Takamine that requested someone give her a decent burial because he cared that much about her. She was his _partner…_"

Kei was surprised at the bitterness coming out in his voice. He didn't remember feeling that spiteful and angry about the way things had turned out. He mourned Tomoe and Takamine because of who they were in his life, and he hadn't begrudged them the relationship that they had concealed from him, and everyone else for that matter, but the way he talked about it now…he didn't know that he could feel that way.

Rei reached out and put her hand on Kei's shoulder. "I know how you feel," she said softly.

Kei looked over at her. "You can't expect me to believe that Yuu was having an affair," he said.

Rei let out a breathy chuckle. "No," she said softly. She indicated the office area of the room. "But you can't convince either one of us that I was really the most important thing in his life when he surrounded himself with his work."

"That's what he did though," Kei said softly. "Everything about Yuu was his work. Everything else came second."

"Which brings us to the reason I never pushed him to set a date even though I was trying," Rei said softly. "I didn't want to be second forever."

Kei nodded. "I know how that feels," he said softly. He reached up and patted Rei's arm. "We're supposed to be happy today," he said. "We beat the curse and we survived. Let's celebrate. We'll go out to dinner or something."

Rei smiled. "Sounds great," she said. "You call the hospital; I'm going to take a shower."

Kei chuckled. "Yes, ma'am," he said before he pushed himself to his feet. He held out his hands for Rei and she accepted his gesture. The two of them walked out of the bedroom and down the hall. Rei moved right, to go to her room, and Kei moved left, toward the staircase. He nodded to Miku at the bottom of the stairs and went for the phone. He called the hospital and spoke with Mio's doctor. He was elated to discover that Mio had woken this morning complaining of hunger and not crying out from "phantom pains". The doctor wanted to keep her a little while longer, just to make sure she was on the road to recovery, and Kei was fine with that.

After all, there was a future now. Life was to be lived and they would all go on, one way or another….


End file.
